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Sunday, 2 February 2014

Bread Alone

One thing about taking over bread duties... is that I'm not so bad at making it now. (I'm not showing you the first loaf, mind.)
The Old Man do instruct on basic sourdough loaf "recipe proportions and oven heat" like so:
500gm flour of choice;
250gm sourdough starter (my starter is 100% hydration = 1 measure of flour to 1 measure liquid when feeding);
250gm tepid water;
and about half or whole tsp of salt.
(Basically that is 2 parts flour to 1 part each "starter" and water.)
Oven heat (on our oven - top and bottom heat) is 225 C and time is 30mins with another five minutes with the heat turned off.
This loaf has been proved in a well-floured proving basket and baked on a hot iron (Steel) plate that The Old Man uses for the purpose in the oven.

What makes differences can be the flours. Not just whether they are wholemeal (which can need some of the water to be added later in the kneading process 'cos it takes time to absorb the water) or refined ...but also which grain the flour is milled from ... or even ... which brand or mill. Takes practice to get to know how the different flours behave. Don't be scared if the dough seems a bit (not a lot, mind) too wet to handle or knead easily. My tip is to flour your hand rather than the dough.. and to have patience. Sometimes all you need is to let the dough sit for a few minutes and it catches up with itself in that crazy amalgamating way of bread dough. (For all the details of the process find a good bread-making book or Google it! cos I didn't mean to do a full how-to post.... and I ain't that much of an expert.)